"A human group transforms itself into a crowd when it suddenly
responds to a suggestion rather than to reasoning, to an image rather
than to an idea, to an affirmation rather than to proof, to the
repetition of a phrase rather than to arguments, to prestige rather
than to competence."

Jean-François Revel was not referring to the United States when he
wrote those words, nor to his own France, but to human beings in
general. He was certainly not referring to Barack Obama, whom he
probably never heard of, since Revel died last year.

To find anything comparable to crowds' euphoric reactions to Obama,
you would have to go back to old newsreels of German crowds in the
1930s, with their adulation of their fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. With
hindsight, we can look back on those people with pity, knowing now how
many of them would be led to their deaths by the man they idolized.

The exultation of the moment can exact a brutal price after that
moment has passed. Nowhere is that truer than when it comes to picking
the leader of a nation, which means entrusting that leader with the
fate of millions today and of generations yet unborn.

A leader does not have to be evil to lead a country into a
catastrophe. Inexperience and incompetence can create very similar
results, perhaps even faster in a nuclear age, when even "a small
country"-- as Senator Obama called Iran-- can wreak havoc anywhere in
the world, when they are led by suicidal fanatics and supply nuclear
weapons to terrorists who are likewise suicidal fanatics.

Barack Obama is truly a phenomenon of our time-- a presidential
candidate who cannot cite a single serious accomplishment in his
entire career, besides advancing his own career with rhetoric.

He has a rhetorical answer for everything. Those of us who talk about
the threat of Iran are just engaging in "the politics of fear"
according to Obama, something to distract us from "the real issues,"
such as raising taxes and handing out largesse with the proceeds.

Those who have studied the years leading up to World War II have been
astonished by how many people and how many countries failed to see
what Adolf Hitler was getting ready to do.

Even though Hitler telegraphed his punches, few people seemed to get
the message. Books about that period have had such titles as "The
Gathering Storm" and "Why England Slept."

Will future generations wonder why we slept? Why we could not see the
gathering storm in Iran, where one of the world's leading oil
producers is building nuclear facilities-- ostensibly to generate
electricity, but whose obvious purpose is to produce nuclear bombs.

This is a country whose president has already threatened to wipe a
neighboring country off the map. Does anyone need to draw pictures?

When terrorists get nuclear weapons, there will be no way to deter
suicide bombers. We and our children will be permanently at the mercy
of the merciless.

Yet what are we talking about? Taxing and spending policies, socking
it to the oil companies and rescuing people who gambled on risky
mortgages and lost.

Are we serious? Are we incapable of adult foresight and adult
responsibility?

Barack Obama of course has his usual answer: talk. Rhetoric seems to
be his answer to everything. Obama calls for "aggressive" diplomacy
and "tough" negotiations with Iran.

These colorful adjectives may impress gullible voters but they are
unlikely to impress fanatics who are willing to destroy themselves if
they can destroy us in the process.

Just what is Senator Obama going to say to Iran that has not been said
already? That we don't want them to develop nuclear weapons? That has
already been said, every way that it can possibly be said. If talk was
going to do the job, it would already have done it by now.

Go to the United Nations? What will they do, except issue warnings--
and when these are ignored, issue more warnings?

But what does Obama have besides talk-- and adoring crowds?

http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell